Updated at 11:10 a.m.: U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Friendswood, has released a letter to Gov. Rick Perry that he authored last Friday and that the 23 other Republicans in the Texas congressional delegation signed. It sings from the same hymn book as Abbott and Perry. It says Texas must act to make sure "federal healthcare exchange navigators are properly vetted, trained and state-certified." However, Weber & Co. depart from Abbott in one regard: They are still saying "amen" to Perry's call for a rule making navigators submit to the insurance department the names of people they sign up for insurance through the exchange, and locations at which sign ups occur. Under federal regulations, that's a no-no. Abbott's silent on the matter. Note: We've also corrected the acronym for an older federal law, HIPAA.

Original post at 9:09 a.m.: Attorney General Greg Abbott has cited about a half dozen shortcomings in federal rules governing the “navigators” hired under federal grants to help people sign up for insurance under Obamacare. The various "insufficiencies" mean Texas will have to issue its own, tougher regulations, Abbott said in a letter to Insurance Commissioner Julia Rathgeber on Tuesday.

Among the flaws Abbott says his and Rathgeber's agencies have identified:

* Navigators should undergo criminal background checks before they're hired, convicted felons should be rejected and navigators should have more training in the 1996 federal health privacy law known as HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. (The biggest recipient of the federal navigator grants in Texas, a 17-member consortium led by United Way of Tarrant County, has voluntarily done criminal background checks on all of the 75 navigators it hired and given them special training on HIPAA, officials said.)

* While the federal rules require reports of security breaches to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that isn't enough. Navigators should be required to immediately notify the affected individuals and undergo more training on all the state and federal privacy laws and the steps they should follow in the event of such a breach.

Abbott does not mention one demand Gov. Rick Perry made this fall: Perry suggested the state Insurance Department require navigators to report to it the names of all consumers they help and where they helped the consumers. Experts said that would violate the federal rules, which forbid navigators from keeping names and personal information on the people they help.

Rathgeber has not moved to issue emergency regulations. As we reported in this Sept. 30 story, she must carefully navigate a new state law that requires her to try to work with the feds to iron out problems with the navigator rules. We had this story on Abbott's letter in Wednesday's print editions. You can read the letter below.